The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1913. A GRAVE CRISIS.

Waipa Post, Volume VI, Issue 261, 4 November 1913, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1913. A GRAVE CRISIS.

NOBODY can dispute the fact that a grave crisis in the industrial affairs of this country has been reached. And for what ? It is obvious to all that the adoption by the Watersiders of the shipwrights' grievance and the deliberate interruption of the overseas trade is designed with the object of providing a pretext for giving an exhibition of power, or, as the Labour Press says, "avenging Waihi." Under such circumstances the strike is one of the most wicked that has been brought about in the country. It will inflict an almost irreparable injury upon all those engaged in agricultural pursuits besides seriously crippling the trade of our commercial centres. It is a national calamity and one which will bring hunger—if not starvation—to the homes of innocent people. Hence it is the duty of every man who prides himself that he is a Britisher, to help to rescue the country from the unhappy position into which she has fallen. This isnot a timeforhomilies on the sacredness of property or the rights of individuals. Each one of us should give immediate consideration to the position, and at once try to discriminate in his mind between Labour in the mass, and the comparatively small section of it which is represented by the Federation, and which now seeks to dominate, not.only the workers of every class, but every member of the community. The time has come when there can be no paltering with the question as to whether we are to surrender our lives and our means of living into the keeping of men who make no secret of their present action being merely a preliminary to a more violent movement towards subjucating society to their rule. What we have seen should be quite sufficient to enable all to realize the tyranny to which we may be reduced should the result of the present strike be such as to warrant the Federation leaders in thinking that they have terrorised .the rest of the population into subjection. The time has come when sides must be definitely taken for or against its methods, and none of us who are dependent on the work of either hands or head, or on the produce of hard-earned savings, can afford to sit idly by and allow matters to take their course. The position should more especially appeal to those whose living depends on the preservation and development of our industries, for it is impossible to think that they can go on under conditions which threaten daily interruptions, without even the allegation of any substantial grievance. The first step towards an assurance of some measure of industrial peace is to convince the malcontents that they have not the sympathy of the general public in the attitude they have adopted, and means must be afforded for letting this be known with no uncertain voice. It is in this respect that the great value of the Farmers' Union has been shown. With commendable promptitude, and with a view to safeguarding the interests of the agricultural industries without entering into the rights or wrongs of the strikers'actions—the Union has organised its members so as to combat the influences of the strike by providing an outlet for the agricultural produce of the Dominion. In no uncertain manner has the whole of the community—except, of course, those allied to the Federation responded to the call. If work is to be done, if the "free labourers" arc to be protected, men are quickly offering, and there is liitle likelihood that the strikers will succeed in "paralysing industries " to-day. To the farmer the value of organisation and the worthiness of his Union must be apparent, for it was launched with the sole view to safeguarding his interests, and in this it,

has not failed in a time the farming community is faced with very grave difficulties. There can be no doubt that the country is opposed to unwarranted strikes and the present crisis — thanks to the action of the Farmers' Union and the response of its members-—is fraught with peril to trades unionism which, as at present constituted, works only in a desire to " paralyze industries." It is evident that if the workers wish to lose all they have gained during the past twenty years, they have only to drive the public to desperation, as the revolutionary element is doing.